Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/45

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Living Confederate Principles.
41

March 13, 1914, where we are told that the appointment of the German, Gen. Franz Sigel, early in 1864, to command in western Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley had been made by Lincoln "in pursuance of his earnest wish to recognize in every way possible the great aid Gen. Sigel's countrymen were giving the government in the prosecution of the war. Lincoln, in homely phrase, had said that he ought to 'take care of the Germans.' Gen. Sigel's appointment was directly due to this purpose of the President's. An election was approaching and the German vote was important."

(d) Here and elsewhere, in quotations found in this article, the emphasis is our own.

(e) See this more fully discussed in A. H. Stephens' History of the United States, pp. 590 et seq.

(f) "Trusting in Almighty God, an approving conscience and the aid of my fellow-citizens, I devote myself to the service of my native State, in whose behalf alone will I ever again draw my sword."—Gen. Robert E. Lee to the Convention of Virginia, April, 1861, in accepting the command of the military forces of the State to defend her against the impending invasion: Rev. J. Wm. Jones' Life and Letters of Robert Edward Lee (1906), 135.


(1) The purported letter of Gen. Lee containing the expression is found in Dr. J. Wm. Jones' Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes and Letters of Gen. Robt. E. Lee, 1875, p. 133. Capt. James Power Smith, of the Southern Historical Society, advises me that Professor Graves, of the University of Virginia, has examined the question in an Address before the Bar Association of Virginia, and reached the conclusion that the letter was not written by General Lee; also, that the Publishing Committee of the Society concurs in this conclusion.—L. T. E.

(2) Gen. Jackson's farewell address to the "Stonewall Brigade," Oct. 4, 1861: John Esten Cooke's "Stonewall Jackson: A Military Biography," 1876, p. 856.

(3) The Bible, Isaiah ii, 4.

(4) "It is related that the flag which was raised at Cambridge, January 2, 1776, by Washington, was composed of thirteen red and white stripes, with the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew emblazoned on the blue canton in place of the stars."—Brown & Strauss' Dictionary of American Politics, article "Flag of the United States."

(5) A. H. Stephens' Hist. U. S., 225.

(6) Revised Statutes of the United States, 1878, copy of the Declaration of Independence, certified by Ferdinand Jefferson, official custodian, or "Keeper of the Rolls at the Department of State."

(7) See, for instance, action of the Convention of North Carolina which refused to accede to the federal constitution of 1787, adopting by a large majority a resolution recommending to the Legislature to pass similar impost laws to those to be passed by the Congress under the constitution "and appropriate the money arising therefrom to the use of Congress"; i. e., thus refusing to recognize the secession of the ratifying States from the old Confederation. Vol. 4 Elliot's Debates, p. 251.

(8) See 1 Elliot's Debates, 327, 327-9, 334-5; A. H. Stephens' Hist. U. S., 339-40, 347-50, 358-61.